Just Trade Shirts

An author said about the American Economy: “I am concerned…with the ‘good’ people, the right-thinking people, who stick to principle all right except where it conflicts with the chance to make a fast buck. It seems to me that there are very dangerous ambiguities about our democracy in its actual present condition. I wonder to what extent our ideals are now a front for organized selfishness and systematic irresponsibility… Some Americans are not too far from the law of the jungle. If our affluent society ever breaks down, what are we going to have left?” The author was not a present day economist but a Trappist monk, Thomas Merton writing in 1961. (Cold War Letter # 10, Cold War Letters, pp. 27–28, The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 445)

I was reminded of this quote by Merton today when I heard on the news that Exxon/Mobile Oil company broke its own world profit record last year by making over 125 million dollars of profit a day. The billions of dollars of profits of Exxon/Mobile overshadows the billions of dollars of bonuses paid out last year by some major financial corporations that took large amounts of taxpayers money in the ‘bailout’ plan of the Federal Government.

While the stories of greed abound, the stories of lay-offs and tough economic times for millions of Americans grows. As greed grows in this county for the .1 percent, 99.9% of us suffer and argue among ourselves about tax cuts and helping out the poor and needy. (See posting on No Free Lunch earlier this week.)

President Obama decried the greed of the Wall Street financiers, and has not yet said anything about the greed of the oil corporations. But talk will do us no good. If Americans would stop buying Exxon/Mobil gas, or not do business with greedy financial businesses, the greed would end. Exxon and big banks can only do what we allow them to do.

Today I heard about how Citgo, another major oil company owned by the government of Venezuela, was again this year giving out over 100 million dollars of heating oil to needy families in the USA. There are also banks and financial firms who did participate in the greed of Wall Street.

Gandhi led the Indian people to freedom from the rule of England by preaching and practicing self-reliance. On the pilgrimage of peace, we visited communities and villages that were not affected by the tough economy because they were self-reliant, or what we now call sustainable.

Just today I heard from a friend connected with the Ashram established by Gandhi in Sevagram that can offer us Khardi shirts (woven directly from cotton). When I asked the price of these shirts, she said: “These shirts are slightly more expensive, around 8 to 10 dollars, as the colors used were vegetable dyes, packed good, and they are hand woven, hand spun and hand dyed totally chemical free - eco-friendly fabric by Magan Sarvodaya.” The same shirt in the USA made with inferior material and probably in a sweatshop would be about $20-$40. This is not ‘free trade’ or even ‘fair trade’, but what I call Just Trade.

More on the shirts and other products to come on the Just Trade web page. Let us replace greed with Just Trade.

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